


Rin's sunshine

by Scmnz



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-25
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2018-09-02 04:26:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8651152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scmnz/pseuds/Scmnz
Summary: Nagisa demands Rin tell him a song that makes him think of Nitori. Nitori becomes determined to find the song's meaning. Rin is afraid that his friends, and worst of all that Ai, will discover his secret feelings.





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> I am not the best writer, and I'm not very good at editing my own work. Thank you for bearing with me, and if you spot a mistake feel free to let me know so I can fix it. 
> 
> This is an idea that's been in my head for awhile, as the song just seems to fit absolutely perfectly with their relationship.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Rin had completely zoned out. Nagisa had been prattling away for what must have been ten minutes. And it had been the most inane stuff as well. He glanced around to see that even Nitori, the master of chattering aimlessly, had a glazed look on his face. Indeed, Nagisa did seem to be more annoying than Nitori. Indeed Rin didn’t mind Nitori’s enthusiasm anymore…

 

“well Rin?” Rin jerked and looked at Nagisa. Apparently he’d been asked a question. “Wha-” “What’s a song that makes you think of Ai chan?”

 

Rin blinked. “Where the hell did _that_ come from?” It sounded gruffer than the red head had meant it, but the question was almost… embarrassing.

 

“Weren’t you listening to me?” Nagisa pouted. “Whatever, just answer. What’s a song that makes you think of Ai Chan?”

 

And suddenly everyone seemed to be paying attention, instead of looking blank. Just his luck. Rin tried to brush off the question with his usual gruff attitude, but nothing could stop Nagisa once he was locked onto something.

 

Several attempts at dissuading Nagisa only seemed to make the others more interested. Rin was losing and he knew it. he was blushing at this point, thoroughly embarrassed. Should he make something up? This would be incredibly risky. What if his Iwatobi friends worked out how he felt? No, worse. What if _Ai_ worked out how he felt? What was this fucking conversation anyway? It was ridiculous.

 

 Rin finally snapped “Fine! But not all of it applies, only parts make me think of him ok. And it’s in fucking English. I don’t give a shit if none of you understand it either. I won’t translate-”

 

“Quit stalling” Nagisa interrupted with a whine.

 

The red head took a breath, face the same color as his hair, and wishing he could die right now. In a rather poor singing voice he sang “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray.” He was looking right at Nitori now. The gray haired boy looked thoroughly confused. Thank God for Nitori’s bad English skills. All the same, Rin lost his courage and only hummed the remaining lyrics, until he got to the end and sang “Please don’t take my sunshine away.”

 

Rin glanced around, seeing how everyone had reacted. Ai looked lost but curious. Makoto looked curious as well. Haru, as always, was unreadable. Nagisa seemed to have understood at least part. Oh no. Rei, whose English was better than the other’s seemed to be pondering the song choice. Knowing how close he was with Nagisa it seemed likely he’d tell the blond what the song had meant too. Just Rin’s luck.

 

“why’d you only hum part?” Nitori questioned. “I said only part of the song applied didn’t I.” Rin snapped, trying to get as far away from “How much I love you” as possible. He saw the determined look on his roommate’s face then. Oh no.

 

“I’m going to find the translation to that song.” Nitori stated, looking almost fierce with his conviction. Where had that come from? “I want to know what you think about me senpai.”

 

Rin didn’t know what to say. It looked like there really would be no escape for him. “Oh. I guess you could use the practice with English, it is your worst subject. So you should translate it yourself at least. Instead of googling it.” At least that would buy the red head some time. Maybe enough time to think of an excuse for “I love you.” Maybe Nitori would only look for the part he’d sung. Rin couldn’t stand the idea of Ai discovering how he felt.

 

Please, don’t let him find out. Don’t let him hate me. Please, Rin practically prayed.

 _Please_ don’t take my sunshine away.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nitori starts his work, and Rin hopes he can stop him.

Nitori pulled out a piece of paper and stared at it. He tried to remember the sounds from a couple days ago, that English song. He had been too busy with school to start work on it until now, but now he couldn’t get the song back into his head. He glared at the page. Nitori hummed softly, he could at least recall bits of the tune.

 

The door to the room opened, and Rin came back in. He looked at the grey haired boy’s desk and saw the multiple English dictionaries spread open on it. Rin smiled approvingly. “Studying hard?”

 

“Trying to. Can you sing that song again senpai? I can’t remember it…”

 

Rin’s heart sank. He had hoped Ai would forget all about the song, and the fact that he hadn’t mentioned it since the awkward incident when he’d been forced to sing had increased his hope.

 

“It’s not that important Ai, why not study other things? I’m sure you have other English homework to work on. You don’t need some silly song.”

 

Nitori looked up at the red head pleadingly, a small pout on his face. Rin groaned. He knew he was a sucker for this face. He wanted his love to be happy all the time, no matter what. Damn.

 

“come on, please?” Ai whined. Rin sighed, just like last time, there was no escaping this. He was utterly and completely trapped.

 

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy…”

 

He finished the song. He’d once again left out the “how much I love you” hoping against hope that would save him. He should have known better. Nitori could be unbelievably stubborn at times.

 

“What’s that middle bit? Surely you can remember it this time.”

 

“It’s not important, really Ai. You have the song now, just like you asked.”

But Nitori had a determined frown on his face. He had scribbled down as much of the sounds as he could, hoping he’d spelled the words right so he could find their meanings. He turned to his computer but Rin stepped over and quickly closed the laptop’s lid.

 

“I gave you the song on the requirement that you’d translate it yourself. No using the computer, that defeats the point.”

 

The grey haired boy looked up from his notebook again about to protest. He blinked, Rin was actually shaking. Why? Ai decided to leave the topic of that extra piece of the song for now. Clearly it was important, but he’d have to find it on his own when Rin wasn’t around.

 

The older boy was the one to look pleading now. Nitori would never break a promise, he knew that, so- “Can you promise me that you’ll translate this own your own? Please!”

 

Nitori looked incredibly confused and worried now. But there was still that determined look in his eye. He nodded however. “Ok, I’ll do it myself. I promise.”

 

Rin sighed. That gave him more time to figure out what to do. Perhaps a lot more time, considering how bad Nitori was with English.

 

But Rin knew that was unlikely, given how determined Ai had looked. Rin flopped on his bed, and grabbed a book, trying to drown out his worries. It didn’t work. Damn it. Would Ai work out that he loved him? Would he hate him?

 

Across the room Nitori stared at the page. He wanted more than anything to know what his senpai thought of him, and he wanted to be able to stop Rin from being so upset about this, whatever the problem was. He would find his answers. No matter what. He gritted his teeth, and set to work, humming the song under his breath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your patience, I have a massive amout of school work until the 20th so expect work on this to be slow. I honestly should be working on an essay now instead of this. If i've made any big mistakes on this please let me know. Thank you again for reading this.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this is such a short chapter, it's what I had time for, and it's the length it felt like it needed to be. More coming when I have the time.

Nitori looked at the current page of his notebook. Written on it were his (bad) attempts at transcribing the sounds from Rin’s song. He had crossed out the words he hadn’t known of this copy. He sighed, seeing just how little he had so far.

“You are my ~~sunshine~~ , my ~~only sunshine~~.

You make me happy when ~~skies~~ are ~~gray~~.

(line Rin is hiding for some reason??)

Please don't ~~take~~ my ~~sunshine away~~ ”

Rin had laughed when He’d seen some of the words Nitori couldn’t remember. “Gray, seriously? I know for a fact you covered this in your class. You had all those charts of colors all over your desk for at weeks.”

So at least that told him gray was a color. He knew he still had those posters somewhere on his desk as well. They were just under some other books. All and all Ai felt this would be manageable. He had six words to track down, plus whatever the mysterious missing words were.

Nitori smiled. He knew one thing for sure, even if most of the song still confused him. This song was what his senpai thought of him, and the song said he made him happy. He’d even asked, because part of him couldn’t believe it. Rin had confirmed in a very soft voice, after turning really red, that yes Ai made him happy. That meant the world to Ai, and for now that was all he needed to know. 

He could find the rest later, for now, he had that mathematics test on Friday. He stared at the piles on his desk, he needed to find the algebra textbook now. And maybe while he was looking for it he would find some of his English notes, study tools, or maybe those posters. He would find out what the song said. The WHOLE song, weather Rin wanted him to or not.


	4. Chapter 4

It was 3 in the morning, and the bed above Rin squeaked again. Nitori had been tossing and turning all night, and Rin was losing it. He was tired and angry, the movement of the upper bunk just kept happening. The red head felt more like punching something than sleeping at this point.

 

And yet another time, there was a rustling. Rin broke, and was actually about to say something sharp and angry, because it was damn 3 am after all. But then he heard Nitori start coughing. It sounded bad. Was Ai sick?

 

Rin knew his roommate had that big test tomorrow, what subject was it again? He’d assumed that was why the boy was having so much trouble sleeping. It was why he was fighting so hard to be quiet and patient, despite the fact that he was very bad at keeping his emotions in check. But, what if Ai was actually sick. Surly he would have noticed by now.

 

Rin racked his brain. He cared about Nitori, how could he miss something that big? But the red head had been training extra hard recently, and he’d also avoided the room hoping it would make it easier for Nitori to study.

 

Then he remembered, they’d argued because almost a whole box of tissues had been used up. In less than a week, that many tissues. Rin had been upset because he was focused on the cost, he hadn’t even stopped to wonder why Nitori would need that many. The red head started cussing himself out in his mind. How could he be so clueless? One of the most important people in the world to him could be sick and he hadn’t even noticed.

 

His worries were confirmed when he heard another round of coughing from above. It sounded painful. Rin couldn’t believe he’d actually been angry at the boy above him. There was a rustle of sheets, and a sudden explosive round of sneezing. Rin lay frozen, unable to do anything but repeatedly think how utterly stupid he’d been.

 

Nitori snuffled, and Rin heard him move. He realized the boy was heading to the ladder to climb down. (How?) So that meant he was awake as well.

 

“Ai?” He asked. There was a very soft, startled yip.

 

“Y- You’re still awake senpai?” Then a sneeze. “It’s my fault isn’t it? I’m so, so sorry!”

 

“Shhh you’re alright. You were going to climb down right. Is there something I can get you?”

 

“I’m sorry! but I need some more tissues… Could you hand me the box? Or I can go grab them, it’s no troub-” Nitori was cut off by a coughing fit. Rin leapt up and got the tissues.

 

“Is there anything else I can do? Why didn’t you tell me you were sick? I’m the one who needs to apologize to you I think.” Nitori blinked as he reached and took the box from Rin. The red head’s voice was so much gentler than usual. That was happening more and more lately.

 

“I don’t think there’s anything else you can do to help… And I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to worry you. It’s just a cold.”

 

Rin frowned, the coughing sounded pretty bad for “just a cold”. And even if it was truly just a small cold “I’d like to worry. I mean, not that I want to worry but I want to know when I need to worry. Because I care and…” He shut his mouth, he knew he was babbling.

Nitori giggled, then murmured “Ok, I’ll tell you next time.”

 

The older boy realized he was still standing in the middle of the room after grabbing Ai the tissues. He felt so helpless, there had to be something he could do. An idea came to him, but it wasn’t an idea he liked. He slipped into his own bed.

 

Nitori had the song copied out perfectly, he’d seen it. And yet the boy kept asking him to sing the song for him. He really seemed to like hearing it, even though Rin knew he had an absolutely abysmal singing voice. When he was little Rin’s mother had sung to him to help him sleep when he was sick. He closed his eyes, part of him really hated this. It was so embarrassing. But it also made Ai so happy, which he really liked seeing. As long as Nitori never found out about “how much I love you” Rin would be safe. “damn” He muttered.

 

“Hmm?” He heard from above.

 

And before his nerves could change his mind, Rin started singing. “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.”

 

Ten minutes later, Rin heard a tiny snore. He smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> written while being partially sick myself, so hopefully this works well and makes sense.


	5. Chapter 5

Nitori woke up having a massive coughing fit. He blinked at how bright the light coming through the window was, and glanced at his alarm clock. It was 10, he was late for his test! Nitori almost fell out of bed and began to panic. How had this happened? He was sick sure but how had he slept through his alarm?

 

There was something on his clock. The small teen reached for his clock, and sneezed. There was a post it on his clock? He rubbed away the remaining bleariness from his eyes and read –

“ _I turned off your alarm so you could sleep longer. You sound terrible, rest! I forbid you to go to any classes. I contacted all your teachers for you and told them you wouldn’t be going. Mr. Hitori is willing to move your test so you can take it later. I will not be happy if I found out you made yourself sicker, so take care of yourself today ok?   – Rin_ ”

 

Nitori closed his eyes and smiled. Rin cared enough about him to do something like that. It was more than he felt like he deserved.

 

Then he opened his eyes wide. Wait! Was he remembering right? Had Rin really sung him to sleep? That was too much to handle while feeling so tired and sick. A few tears fell from his eyes. He was overwhelmed, and he knew it was partially due to how bad he was feeling, but still… Rin had done something like that for him too? Nitori’s checks flushed hot.

 

He lay back down and curled up in his covers. He was going to take advantage of this extra rest Rin had earned him. Nitori wouldn’t waste his senpai’s precious effort. He started coughing, and reached for his tissues. He would do his best to rest, for Rin.

 

* * *

 

 

Nitori woke again after an hour’s fitful sleep. He felt a little bit more alert now, so maybe he should at least do a little homework? He didn’t want to but… He didn’t want to be useless either. He felt useless allot of the time and he hated it.

 

He climbed down from his bunk, and almost fell. When he made it safely to the ground, he grabbed the tissues and took them to his desk. He set the box down on top of a pile of books. He looked for his homework stack, and saw on top the notebook page with his translation of the song. He smiled proudly, he now had all the words except for the mysterious missing verse. He wouldn’t tell Rin how far he’d gotten though. Nitori knew it was selfish but he wanted to hear Rin sing the song a few more times, if he could get him to. He wanted to hear that he made his senpai happy, and that he made his life brighter.

 

The silver haired boy started humming the song to himself as he looked through the homework pile for his math textbook. Maybe he could use this extra time to study for that test. For a second time that day he suddenly remembered something, and his eyes widened. Had Rin slipped up? Had he sung the secret verse while half asleep last night. Nitori grabbed the nearest piece of paper and scribbled all of it that he could remember before it could escape his mind.

“ _You’ll ___ ___ deer how much __ L you.”_

He was missing a few words, and couldn’t quite remember what another word was, just that it started with an L sound. But somehow he knew that missing word was the most important one.

 

 He was about to start looking up the words he had, but then he started violently sneezing. Smiling sheepishly, Ai realized he needed more rest still.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so thrilled that people are enjoying this, I never imagined so many people would. Thank you all! and happy new year, may this year be better than the last.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the longish wait, life's been hectic. Thank you for your patience and continued interest.

Nitori sat slumped in his desk chair.  He felt awful. He’d just made up the test he missed from being sick. It didn’t feel like it went well. Waiting to find out the grade was going to be like waiting for his doom. And Nitori wasn’t better yet either. Even after a week he was still a coughing, snuffling mess. He groaned and let his head fall to his desk with a thump.

 

“You really shouldn’t be going to classes. It’s wiping you out.” Rin was on the other side of their room, getting ready for swim practice. In his determination to make the younger teen rest, Rin had even spoken to captain Mikoshiba, who had banned Nitori from swimming until he was better.

 

“I’m already not very good at anything, if I miss too much class I’ll just fail everything.” Ai sighed.

 

“No, you won’t. You’re smarter than you think you know.” The red head snapped.

 

“I’ll get worse at swimming too senpai. I can’t afford that, please get captain to let me go? Please?” He stared at Rin, eyes wide. And he seemed just about to relent when Nitori was hit by a coughing fit. It wasn’t that bad, really. But Rin’s face had hardened.

 

“No, you aren’t going. You are a good swimmer, you don’t need to worry about that. I won’t let you hurt yourself. I…” Rin turned a bit red. He had finished getting ready, so he now stood by the door, but there seemed to be something on his mind. “I care about you, so look after yourself ok?” The door clicked behind him as he left.

 

Nitori let his head rest on his desk. It was true that he was really tired, but he still wanted to go to practice. He wanted to become a swimmer Rin senpai could be truly proud of. As it was, he was nowhere close. The silver haired boy already felt like a failure at everything. He let his eyes drift closed.

 

I make him happy. At least I know that being around me makes him happy, Nitori thought as he felt himself drifting off. Just as he was about to truly fall asleep he heard the familiar tune of Rin’s song. Blinking drowsily he looked up. It was his cellphone. He asked Rin to find a version of the song Nitori could use as his ringtone, and Rin had found him a nice instrumental one. Still feeling bleary, Nitori reached for the phone.

 

The caller ID said that it was Nagisa calling. That was unexpected. Ai honestly didn’t know if he had the energy to deal with him right now. He groaned softly, and answered the phone.

 

“Ai-chan!!” Nitori flinched, how did Nagisa manage to be so loud?

 

“Yes, it’s me. What’s happen-” He was cut short by a loud sneeze.

 

“So Rin-chan was telling the truth, you really are sick?”

 

“Why would he lie about something like that? Now, why are you calling me?”

 

“You’re so cold Ai-chan, why wouldn’t you want to talk to me?” Nagisa whined.

 

Nitori sighed, he could feel a headache coming already. “That’s not what I’m saying. Was there anything specific you wanted to talk about?”

 

“It’s been a month since we all hung out. I want to know if you’ve translated Rin-chan’s song yet. Have you??” Nagisa sounded incredibly enthusiastic.

 

“Almost all of it. I’ve got everything except the part he leaves out on purpose. I’m still working on that bit. And I think I have most of that. I haven’t been able to hear that part clearly so I can’t know for sure.” Nitori was sitting up now, feeling less tired. This was, after all, a topic he was very interested in.

 

“What’s the song mean? It was cheating for Rin-chan to use English, it’s so unfair! I’m so curious now!” He could practically hear the blond pouting.

 

“That I’m like the sun, and I make him happy when his life is dark. There’s the missing bit, and then that he doesn’t want his sun to be stolen or lost.” Ai began to grin, he couldn’t help it. It made _him_ so happy, knowing he meant that much to his senpai. It made him feel giddy whenever he thought about it.

 

There was something odd about Nagisa’s speech. It almost felt like he knew more than he was saying, and he was trying to lead Nitori somewhere. And sure enough “Rei-chan knew that song, had it in some English class in the past. He probably knows the middle bit. Want me to get him to send it to you? Can I!”

 

Ai bit his lip and frowned. “I thought you didn’t know what it meant, if Rei knows why are you asking me?”

 

“Because Rei-chan is being a meanie. He says it’s none of my business and to ask Rin-chan myself if I was so curious. But he’s angry at me for making him sing, can you believe that? And it sounds like such a sweet innocent song. Very unlike Rin. Why would he be so upset about it? You have to find out what that last bit means Ai-chan! It’s gotta be the key!”

 

Nagisa really had more energy than Nitori felt he could deal with right now. He could practically hear the boy bouncing around his own room. “Sure, have Rei send it to me. But in English still. I promised Rin I’d translate the song by hand.”

 

“Whaaaat? But that’s so boring! And that means _I_ won’t get to know what it means right away.” Nagisa sighed. “Fine fine. I know I could never ask Ai-chan to break a promise to Rin-chan. You never would. You’d walk over live coals for Rin wouldn’t you?” Nitori began to blush at that, and said a quick goodbye to Nagisa.

 

Soon after his phone buzzed. It was a text from Rei, with the missing line written out in English. Nitori found the notebook he was translating in and flipped to the page he had the last line written on, and compared it with the one he’d just been sent.

 

“You’ll never ___ deer how much I L__ you.”

“You’ll never know dear, how much I love you.”

 

Nitori scanned across the different lines carefully, noting the differences. He’d translated all the he had, so he felt he could get to the bottom of this fairly quickly. So, he’d been missing the word “know”. He knew what that word meant (haha).

 

Dear was spelled differently than he had thought. That word had been giving him allot of trouble. Nitori just hadn’t been able to work out what a forest creature meant in context. The symbolism and meaning of the sun had been fairly easy to grasp, but what the hell did a deer have to do with anything? So it was a relief that it was a different word. Nitori absentmindedly reached for his English dictionary while scanning the rest of the line.

 

Nitori’s hand flailed. He dropped the dictionary and knocked several thing off of his desk. He stared, mouth open at the word written on his phone. “Love”. His heart began to race. He didn’t need to look up what that word meant. But, Rin senpai had said repeatedly that that line wasn’t necessary, and that he didn’t mean it. What was Ai supposed to think now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm planning for the next chapter to be the last. I don't have the faintest clue when I'll have time for it, but it will get done. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and thank you again!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was fairly certain this would be the last chapter, but it turns out I'll need one more. We'll make it to the end soon, I promise.

After swim practice finished, Rin decided to head straight to the library to study. Ai needed rest, and him grumbling angrily at his homework would hardly help.

 

 The work ended up taking far longer than he had thought it would, and it was dark out by the time he began walking back to the dorm. The red head glanced at his phone to check the time, and stopped. There was a message from Nitori there. _“Can we talk when you get back?”_ Why would he ask if they could talk? Of course they could. This must be serious. Rin looked at when the message had been sent and swore, it had been three hours. He hurried to get back to his room.

 

When he opened the door he saw Nitori still sitting at his desk, right where he’d been when Rin left. The older boy opened his mouth, about to ask what was up, when he noticed that Nitori was asleep. He must have stayed at his desk waiting for Rin to get back so they could talk, despite being tired. He smiled at the sight of his sleeping face, despite his worry about what Ai wanted to talk about. Nitori was absolutely adorable.

 

Rin sighed, obviously whatever Nitori had wanted to talk about would need to wait until tomorrow. He wasn’t about to wake up his sick roommate. Even if he was almost better he needed the rest. The desk couldn’t be that comfortable though, and would probably leave Nitori tired in the morning. As gentaly as possible, Rin picked up the sleeping teen. As he lifted him a notebook was knocked off Ai’s desk. Rin carried Nitori to the beds. He couldn’t manage to lift Ai into his own bunk, even if he was surprisingly light, so Rin placed him in the lower bunk. The red head would just have to take the top bunk tonight. He tucked him in, and turned around.

 

Rin walked back and reached for the fallen notebook. He paused when he saw the all the tissues that lay crumpled on the desk. Nitori was still coughing and sneezing, but he wasn’t very congested. He would understand a few tissues, but this many? Alarmed, he walked back to the beds and looked down at the silver haired teen. Sure enough, his eyes looked puffy and red. Nitori had been crying.

 

Rin began to panic but he forced himself to stop. He couldn’t do anything about this until morning. How much of an idiot was he? Why hadn’t he looked at his phone sooner, or even just texted Ai telling him he’d be late? If he’d done that he’d have been in time to find out what was wrong. But now he wouldn’t know for hours. At least tomorrow was a weekend, so classes wouldn’t separate them and keep the conversation from happening.

 

Rin fought for composure. For now he needed to sleep, that was all he could do. Remembering the notebook he still hadn’t picked up, he walked over and grabbed it. He glanced at it’s open pages before putting it back and froze. It was the notebook Nitori had been translating the song in. But he knew Nitori had finished translating it a while ago.

 

Rin looked at the page before him and his heart practically stopped. Written on the page in Nitori’s sloppy handwriting was the verse Rin had specifically not sung. Written was both the clumsy English, and the translation. _“You’ll never know dear, how much I love you.”_ The word love had been circled several times, and then scribbled out, then erased and re-written. All over the page, this had clearly happened over and over again. The page was covered with “love” in various mutilated states.

 

 Rin couldn’t breathe. Nitori knew how he felt. And judging by the state of this page, and the fact Ai had cried… What could he do? How could Rin keep from losing his best friend over his own stupid feelings? Rin felt like he was going to cry himself. All he could do was wait until morning, and pray that he wouldn’t lose his sunshine. He didn’t get any sleep that night.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for sticking through this with me. I hope everyone enjoys this last chapter.

Rin didn’t sleep at all. He couldn’t stop thinking about what he would do if Nitori hated him now. He kept worrying, mind going in circles, coming up with more and more extreme outcomes. He gave up on sleep completely at 7. Instead Rin paced the room, hoping the movement would help. Going for a run always helped clear his head, but he had to be there when Nitori woke up, so pacing the room was the best option Rin had.

 

In the bottom bunk, Nitori had gotten himself tangled in the sheets. He was curled up in a ball around Rin’s pillow, clinging to it. St about 8 he started slowly waking up. He didn’t want to, and tried to stop himself. It felt like when he woke up, he’d lose something. Eventually, however, he failed and woke up. 

 

Nitori could hear a soft rhythm of thumps, footsteps? occasionally broken off by quiet muttering. Nitori opened his eyes. He untangled himself and moved to climb down his ladder to see what the sound was. Because he wasn’t actually in his own bunk, and there was no ladder, what actually happened was that he fell to the ground with a small crash. Looking up, he saw a startled looking Rin. He had fallen right in the path of his pacing.

 

Nitori let out a tiny squeak at the sight of Rin, his panic last night remembered. He scrambled to his feet, wobbling slightly. The red head grabbed his elbow, helping stabilize him. The smaller teen was gently guided to a chair.

 

Rin shifted nervously from foot to foot, muttering “You’re probably still half asleep, I can go get you coffee or something to help wake up. So we can talk.”

 

Nitori wished he hadn’t texted Rin asking to talk. Part of him wanted to pretend he hadn’t translated that line. He didn’t want to ruin what he already had. But Rin was clearly quite worried about him. Rin deserved the truth. It would be better to get this over with, before he lost his nerve. “No. Can we talk now please?”

 

Rin flinched. Ai’s face had become hard set, determined. So that meant he was angry with Rin, didn’t it? Shit. “I just want you to know its ok, if you want a room change or anything. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable because of me. So whatever you want.”

 

Nitori blinked. “Why would you say that? Do you want me gone? Do you still want a room change?” His lip trembled, and he fought to keep fresh tears from coming. Rin was going to be upset at him after all.

 

Rin rubbed his eyes. Time to get this over with. “Look I saw your notebook. I know you translated that verse and you’re obviously upset over it so-”

 

“Of course I’m upset!” Nitori blurted, interrupting. “For a second it made me hope, but then I thought about it. You said repeatedly that that verse wasn’t important. It’s not like you could actually like me! No one could. Someone would have to be an idiot to love a worthless mess like me!” Nitori was crying now. “It just hurt, thinking about all that. I’m s-s-sorry senpai.”

 

“So… you aren’t mad at me and you don’t hate me because of that verse? You’re just sad because you don’t think anyone can love you?” Rin had begun to shake and was almost crying himself. How could Nitori think so little of himself when he was such a wonderful person? For whatever insane reason when they had first met, Nitori had decided to become his persistent, adorable sunshine, chasing Rin to make his life brighter. And it had worked, more than Ai could ever know. If it weren’t for Ai, he would have been completely consumed during his dark times. And it wasn’t just Rin, Nitori made everyone’s life brighter and better.

 

The smaller teen nodded. “I could never hate you senpai, no matter what.” He snuffled.

 

Rin reached out and took Nitori’s face in his hands, making him look at him. What mattered most was making sure his friend didn’t hurt was far more important to Rin in that moment than his own rejection. His thumb gently rubbed Ai’s beauty mark. “You say it would take an idiot to love you. If that were the case then I will gladly say I’m the biggest idiot in the world. I mean that song, every last word of it. You’re perfect. You say you’re upset because no one else could like you. I’m sure there will be someone else too. So, so.” Nitori was so shocked that he stopped crying.

 

Rin’s voice broke. He needed to be strong for Nitori right now, but he was struggling. Knowing that he had confessed, that Nitori knew, but that he didn’t like him back, it was agony. His hands dropped from the boy’s face, and he stared at the ground. He had to calm down, had to keep it together. He needed to somehow make Nitori see what a great person he was. But he couldn’t think of any words.

 

“You mean all that, don’t you.” Nitori sounded calmer, breath more regular. The tears were drying from his face. He took a deep breath to steady his nerves, putting his hands on Rin’s shoulders he looked him straight in the eye, and Nitori began to sing.

 

“You are my sunshine. My only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey.” His accent was really bad, but that didn’t matter in the least to Rin. The silver haired teen was shaking now, face gone bright pink, but he kept his eyes locked on the red head’s face. He took another deep breath, trying desperately to stabilize his nerves. Rin looked stunned, and like he was struggling to breathe “You’ll never know dear, how much I love you.” Seeing his senpai’s blush he felt himself blush even harder. He hid his face in his hands, lowering his head. In a tiny whisper, he finished “Please don’t take my sunshine away.”

 

Rin watched Ai, heart pounding and asked with his voice shaking “So, you… you like me too?” It was almost more than he could hope for. His kohai looked up, and in answer to his question leaned up and pressed their lips together. It was gentle, and timid, and perfect. Rin pulled Ai close in his arms, hoping never to let go. Nitori smiled, and it looked brighter than the sun to his love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first full fic, all I've done in the past are short drabbles, so I'm so incredibly happy people have liked it. It means so much to me. Thank you everyone!


	9. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A very short epilogue so that hopefully the story feels more finished.

The friends were gathered by the pool. Nagisa sat bouncing and grinned up at Rei. “I told you so!” He whispered. “I told you it would work! Look.” He pointed to where Rin and Ai sat. They were side by side, holding hands and talking quietly about something. The couple were completely oblivious to the blonde’s pointing, despite the fact that his “whispering” wasn’t actually very quiet.

 

Rei smiled. “Don’t be rude Nagisa. But I am glad they finally got together. They are beautiful together. Your plan actually worked.”

 

Nagisa pouted. “Of course it worked.”

 

It wasn’t in the boy’s nature to stay put out for long. He began bouncing again. “Should we try it again? It worked so well with Rin and Ai. So we should make another hopeless pair confess!”

 

Rei’s eyes widened “Nagisa don’t!” But it was too late. Nagisa had jumped up in excitement, and called out “Haru-chan! Haru-chan! What’s a song that makes you think of Mako-chan?!” Rei hid his face in his hands and groaned. Haru blushed an uncharacteristic pink. Rin and Nitori had looked up from their conversation, and Rin was grinning his shark-toothed grin. He called out “Yeah Haru. What’s a song that makes you think of Makoto?”


End file.
